that part of the clothing of the leg and foot which immediately covers and screens them from the rigour of the cold. Anciently, the only stockings in use were made of cloth, or of milled stuff sewed together; but since the invention of knitting and weaving stockings of silk, wool, cotton, thread, &c., the use of cloth stockings is quite discontinued. Dr Howell, in his History of the World, vol. ii. p. 222, relates, that Queen Elizabeth, in 1501, was presented with a pair of black knit silk stockings by her silk woman, and thenceforth she never wore cloth ones any more. The same author adds, that King Henry VIII. ordinarily wore cloth hose, except there came from Spain, by great chance, a pair of silk stockings. His son, King Edward VI., was presented with a pair of long Spanish silk stockings by Sir Thomas Gresham, and the present was